SAN DIEGO, CA.- SAN DIEGO—More than 80 works of superlative design and beauty by Maxfield Parrish (1870–1966) will be presented this summer in a major exhibition at the San Diego Museum of Art. Running July 16 to September 11, 2005, the nationally touring exhibition, Maxfield Parrish, Master of Make-Believe, features many of the master illustrator’s most recognizable art works, including his popular calendar and book illustrations, his signature classicized paintings, and the mural he painted for the Long Island studio of Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney. The exhibition also explores Parrish’s artistic development and his working methods, with the aid of documentary photographs, demonstrating why he is counted among the best-known and most beloved American artists of the 20th century. “The San Diego Museum of Art is excited to share this multi-faceted exhibition of one of this country’s most respected and recognized artists with our community and many out-of-town guests,” says SDMA’s executive director, Derrick R. Cartwright. “Parrish’s work, his creative method, and his imaginative subject matter will resonate with visitors of all ages. His imagery balances the popular and fantastic in a way that has secured him a lasting place in the history of art in the United States.”
Parrish considered himself a commercial artist, although he studied fine art at the prestigious Pennsylvania Academy of Design. His immense popular success was due not only to his consummate mastery over the craft of painting, but also to his application of the newly developed, high-quality color printing techniques that aided the massive dissemination of his imagery. Redefining the role of graphic artist, Parrish created a unique style, part illustration–part fine art, tailored to the strengths of the new printing process.
The exhibition includes examples from each phase of Parrish’s career beginning with his illustrations for children’s books. His work in books such as Mother Goose in Prose and The Golden Age have been reprinted and handed down and remain among the principal means that new generations of American readers have become acquainted with Parrish’s art. The illustration Alphabet, included in the exhibition, is among the splendid examples of Parrish’s early work.
Perhaps Parrish is best known for his annual production of calendar art for Edison Mazda, a manufacturer of electric lamps from 1918 to 1934. Through these images depicting toga clad figures in fantastic landscape settings, Parrish challenged the technology of his day by pushing for advances in color lithography. The result was an entirely new and vivid form of printing never before seen. Among the highlights of the exhibition is Parrish’s 1922 painting Daybreak, featuring a female figure greeting the first rays of the morning sun. As an art poster, it became an immediate sensation appearing in hotel lobbies, college dorm rooms, and over the mantel of homes. In short, it was a marketing triumph that not only secured the place of popular, but inexpensive, fine art reproduction during the 20th century, but guaranteed Parrish’s fame as one of America’s most recognizable artists.
Parrish composed his paintings with the aid of photographs, which allowed for the prolonged study of a model to insure the accurate portrayal of the figure’s anatomy. His wife Lydia and their three children, especially the middle daughter Jean, appear frequently as models in his photographs, as demonstrated by a selection of examples in the exhibition. His most important model, and the one who posed for the bulk of his photographic figurative work, however, was Susan Lewin. She began posing for Parrish in 1905 and remained with him until 1960. The young Lewin appears in the photograph that served as a study for the painting Land of Make-Believe, which is also included in the exhibition.
At a time when wealthy Americans commissioned large-scale mural cycles for their newly constructed homes, Parrish was their artist of choice. Maxfield Parrish, Master of Make-Believe includes the rare opportunity to view the spectacular mural commissioned in 1914 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney for the reception room of the studio she built in Wheatley Hills, Long Island. The mural is comprised of five panels—the longest of which measures 18 ½ feet—on three of the four studio walls and depicts a Renaissance fête. In spite of his involvement in such private and exclusive commissions, Parrish throughout his career remained committed to the democratization of art, viewing beauty as a form of social enrichment.
In the 1930s Parrish moved away from figural work to focus on pure landscape painting. His decision echoed the mood of the country; during this period of economic hardship and social upheaval, images of domestic comfort in peaceful, idyllic settings became very popular to those suffering through the Great Depression. As the United States moved toward World War II, there was a renewal in nationalism echoed by Parrish’s landscapes. While they were not overtly political, the artist’s landscapes proclaimed the beauty of the American land. After the war, the popularity of Parrish’s landscapes persisted because they embodied the stability and prosperity of the American way of life.
Whether in books, calendars, or magazine covers, Maxfield Parrish’s images of troubadours and nymphs in Arcadian landscapes never failed to capture the imagination. Applying the new printing techniques available to him, Parrish transformed his paintings into America’s first mass-produced art poster with tens of thousands appearing in homes all over the United States.
